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tv   Mc Laughlin Group  PBS  February 16, 2013 12:30pm-1:00pm PST

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♪[ music ] from washington, the "the mclaughlin group," the american original. for over three decades, the sharpest minds, best sources, hardest talk. >> "the mclaughlin group" is brought to you by siemens. factories. and we're building to
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last. siemens. answers. hardest talk. >> issue one. smarter, not bigger. a growing economy that creates good middle class jobs, that must be the north star that guides our efforts. it is our generation's task then to reignite the true engine of american economic growth, a rising thriving middle class. >> president obama delivered his fourth state of the union address tuesday. in attendance were senate and house members, six of the nine justices of the supreme court, the joint chiefs of staff, members of this cabinet and assorted dignitaries. over the course of one hour, the president unveiled proposals to boost the economy, help the middlal class, invest in the nation's aging infrastructure, create more high-tech manufacturing, a big emphasis, expand preschool education, up
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high school standards and make college more affordable >> nothing i'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. it is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth. >> the president also appeals to congress to work together on climate change, immigration reform, and particularly on the phony issue of automatic government budget cuts known as sequestration. >> question. when former president clinton took the helm during an economic downturn, he said he had a quote laser-like focus on the economy. how would you describe the focus of president obama's state of the union pat buchanan? >> he did pivot back toward the jobs and the economy but overall this was a very libbal brail speech, something we have all heard before nothing new in it and a dead on aarrival speech.
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he is not going to get the minimum wage, not going to get the assault weapons ban, not going to get amnesty, not an awful lot of the things he has in there. he is appealing to his base and appealing to what he sees as the majority of the country, which probably does support most of what he said. it was a very political speech but in terms of what is going to be abe complished i don't think it was at all relevant. >> eleanor? >> it was in tune with the country. he is going to get immigration reform, something he can call a victory on guns, probably universal background checks and legislation to curb gun trafficking, the gun that killed the young girl in chicago came from mississippi. and there are these well-traveled gun running routes. and that is going to be a focus of legislation as well. he is going to get enough, i would seven say he is going to get plenty. and what he doesn't get, he can go to the country with it. if the minimum wage had kept p up with p inflation since the
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60s it would be over $10. asking for $9 is not exorbitant. he'll get it in the future. ted kennedy chipped away for several congresss before he got the last increase in minimum wage. getting behind universal preschool, it is not all about head start, it is middle class issues as well. he has issues he can go to the country with. this is the beginning of a two year campaign to basically win back the house. so it is good politically, it is good substantively as well. >> is there anything you have forgotten? >> i can keep going if you keep shuffling through your papers i don't eleanor can keep going on more ways that president obama has called for government to get bigger more involved in the economy and more involved in our lives. he can't say it is not about bigger smarter government. it is about increasing governmental control and a lot of it is the industrial policy corporate stuff he has talked about before, helping manufacturers, anybody in green
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energy, help anybody in exports. he is talking about more government. just because it is coming from barack obama we are supposed to assume it is smarter government? as opposed to just bigger government? it is the same industrial policy he has been laying out for two or three years. >> does obama still have the gift of gab? >> yeah but the problem is the gab goes on for too long and i think people stop listening at some point. so many different programs you almost couldn't follow it at some points. i think he has to simplify, there are some things that must be done to strength ep the economy, it should have been done a couple of years ago but better late than never. infrastructure is one of them, reform of the tax code is another. but he had so many different programs. the one thing i think is really critical in this whole thing is the fact there may be a common market between the united states and the european common market. that would be huge, there would be no taxes to do that. it would a huge stimulus to our economy. >> shall i rain on obama's parade? >> how many people tuned in to
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watch obama's state of the union. 33.5 million. the least watched state of the union address since 2000. >> it is repetitive about boring. >> no. >> it is because television. >> hold it eleanor. >> the spectacle has lost a lot of the drama and dignity it used to have. he walks down that aisle and gets slaps and high fives. they should have had beyonce doing her number midway through it. >> every other president has walked down that aisle and i don't recall you complaining about it. >> it has lost dignity. >> ike and fdr didn't look like that. >> it is an american tradition and the fact the numbers were down is partly because people don't watch television like they used to. >> eleanor, how were obama's kneels son ratings -- neilsen ratings, the second lowest since they began taking measurement in 1993. the lowest since 2000 when bill you clinton's last drew an
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audience of 931.5 million. >> i think neilsen should start rating some of the social media sites and look at the exchanges between people who watched it. the american people who watched that and pick up portions that have, here our president is addressing concerns in their lives. i agree the big topics like the eu trade pac that is very important. but i don't think people in the country are listening for that. they are listening for all the little programs that the rest of you ridicule, and he is telegraphing he gets what their problems are and he is on their side. that is very important politically. >> i will help redeem the president all right? he is on the wake of three weeks away from his earlier address at the inauguration okay? people saw that. and i think they feel he is going to be repeating that. and that is probably a big reason why they didn't tune in. therefore, he gets a pass. what do you think? >> also i think that's right. i think eleanor's right if you are watching it on white house.gov my wife watched it on her ipad. that doesn't show up in the
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neilsen ratings. a lot of people were watching it online or watching it the next day. tv consumption is changing. >> the oratory about they deserve a vote and going through all the gun victims, those are real people and they were sitting there. >> was it too much? >> if you remainder dry eyed through that, that was an enormous emotional event in this country. >> it was all poll tested. every single one of those things and many of them are very popular and people are saying isn't that great? but it is not going anywhere. republican senator marco rubio responds to president obama. >> the tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle class families. it will cost them their raises cost them their benefits, it may even cost some of them jobs. and it will hurt seniors because it does nothing to help save medicare and social security.
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hardworking middle class americans who don't need us to come up with a plan to grow the government, they need a plan to grow the middle class. >> question, was rubio for the gop? tim? >> he moved in the right direction. i don't think it was a great response. he moved in the right direction because you heard when he was criticizing government he wasn't saying oh it is taking p money from hardworking people and giving it to the p undeserving, he was saying government is keeping you down. government regulations are making it harder for someone to start a new business, you or the person who might hire you. government breeding dependency and keeping the regular person down. i thought rhetoric. >> why was he chosen? >> why? because he might be the presidential nominee in four years. he is young has sort of a tea party pedigree. >> he is the hottest property out there right now john. >> why? >> because he is cuban
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american, charismatic, young attractive. the republican savior. >> is he too young? >> when he glook. >> the rubio reach. >> in a short time i have been here in washington nothing has frustrated me more than false choices like the one the president laid out tonight. the choice isn't just between big government or big business. what we need is an accountable, efficient and effective government. >> what is the lesson? the lesson is p don't do that in the middle of a fault. >> the advance team is at fault. he should have had a podium. a glass of water on the shelf p underneath the podium. >> he should have had something to drink before he started. >> well that too. >> church hill said when you do it you do it you make it perfectly dignify, you take the water, you put it back slowly, you put it back on the shelf
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and you resume speak. >> he will do it that way the next time. >> you say excuse me and reach for the water. but i don't think that hurts him. in fact it humanizes him and he handled it with great humor afterwards. >> you think the press is overplaying it including us? >> no. excuse me, it gives him a great forum to show he has a sense of humor that if he is the nominee in 2006, then he won't be a robot like mitt romney. i don't think it hurts him at all. his speech on the other hand he said nothing of consequence. it was the same old , same old. >> you take note of the fact he gave the same peach? spanish before he gave it in english. >> i took note of it because i think it is the end of the english only movement in the republican party. >> you know what he is cultivating with that of course the sharps recovery system panic vote. >> that is p one of the attractions of the guy, john. >> that is one of the attractions of the guy. do you think speaking in spanish to the spanish audience in the
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country was a plus for him and a plus for the party in his -- party? >> a blue cross blue a plus for him and a small plus for the party. >> you know what language this country is going to be speaking. >> i know what the southwest is going to be speaking. >> you know what the harvard professor predicted. >> huntington and he was exactly right. >> what did he say? >> huntington has the idea the great problem of america is immigration, mass p immigration, because we are ceasing. >> what did he predict about our national culture and language? >> we are basically going to lose the american. >> going to be hispanic a latin speaking. >> the american sout] ♪ two. nuclear north korea. a third nuclear test. that is what the democratic people's republic of north korea the dpr k, conducted on tuesday in the country's mountainous
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northeast. the area is less than 100 miles from north korea's china border. and is the same site used for north korea's previous two tests. the first in 2006 and the second in 2009. the u.s. geological survey detected a 4.9 magnitude seismic event in the area, more powerful than the 4.5 that registered in 2009 after north korea's second test. scientists in multiple countriesing detected the explosion. north korea issued a confirmation, declaring the test was quote, carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect manner using a miniatureized de greater explosive force than previously, unquoted. pyongyang also declared the the reckless hostility of the united states. unquote. in a state of the union address tuesday president obama had this to say. >> provocation of the sort we
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saw last night will only further isolate them as we standby our allies, strengthen our own missile defense and lead the world in taking firm action in response to defense and take firm action in respnorth threats. >> this is north korea's first successfully launched a long range rocket, raising fears north korea now has the capability to hit the united states. question. what is the real story behind kim jong un's nuclear test? mort? >> he is making an extraordinary statement a small country like that able to develop this kind of weaponry and rocket try and make it all work. it tells you about where the world is going but he is telling everybody don't mess with us okay? and a lot of people do want to mess with them. the president said we will standby our allies a lot of allies in that part of the world do not think the united states
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is standing behind them. why should the united states after the korean war have 20 guys on the dm. z., the point is if the united states weren't on the dnz, this guy wouldn't be building intercontinental missiles and nuclear warheads to attack us p. both korea and japan are probably looking very hard at their own nuclear deterrents and they ought to. >> what about china. >> >> klein is basically supposed to corral and reign in north korea. the japanese are in a conflict with the chinese and the katrinas who have this problem are going to look themselves at nuclear weapons and that is going to be china's problem. >> does china see it as in their best interest to let north korea do what it is doing? >> no they don't. they would like to constrain them, and they have failed to do so. >> wouldn't you think they know the united states will turn to china and klein wants to be cultivated by the united states
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in order to stop. in order to. >> is that too arcane? >> no they are letting this guy go too far. this could have been a uranium weapon or plutonium. if it is uranium, we have a real problem. >> they have been in the nuclear club since early in this century when george bush was in the white house and we have lived with it now for several years. >> what is the point? >> we have lived with it. >> secondly, japan has not made any movement toward going nuclear, so it has not set off a nuclear rain reaction in that part of the world. and thirdly, the usa today headline this week, which really made me nervous, was not even p china cannot north korea. and that's where we end up. if there is a trulying rogue nation it is north carolina -- >> they are too. >> north korea. >> the reason that we don't go
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and try to do a regime change in north korea with this horrible dictator presumably is they have a nuclear weapon. he is showing it worked. >> we are living with it. >> here's a note i have. kim jong un characterized the tests as necessary to defend against american threat. state controlled television used background special effect graphic that abeard to depict an american city destroyed by a nuclear strike. >> why would they build an p intercontinental ballistic missile could go 6000 miles when sowl south korea is 25 miles from the border. >> they had another test about six weeks ago. >> they tested the missile and put a satellite into orbit. they tested a device. >> nuclear arms reduction. >> america will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world's most dangerous
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weapons. at the same time, will engage russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into wrong lands. >> so how many nuclear weapons does the president want to reduce? of the 1700 nuclear weapons the u.s. now possesses, the white house believes 1000 to 1100 warheads would provide an equal level of security. >> under one scenario is 1000 war leads to lower thresholds to maintain a capable nuclear deterrent. if we have to blow-up more than one p planet we might need more than 1000 nuclear warheads. >> is this a reciprocal deal with russia. >> we may as well try to get something for it. >> these are strategic warheads
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you are talking about i don't know. >> yes. >> 1000 of these, are about 50 times the size of north korea. 1000 is fine if the russians come down and the chinese stay down to thissal level because nobody can do a first strike. >> are the russians wanting to go along? >> i think they are. these things are very expense to maintain. russia has real problems. >> where did we see that not long ago? we saw it when france and britain decided to use the same staff to do certain particular what? renovations of their nuclear forces. >> this is not an eyed deal logical issue this is about safety and efficiency. the pentagon is behind the reductions. you want a smaller nuclear arsenal that you can be confident will work. >> countries okay you off. countries with the bomb. the u.s., russia, britain, france, china, india, pakistan, israel, north korea.
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countries believed to be seeking the bomb, iran,ee p egypt, nigeria, syria, taiwan. officially given up to pssing or developing the bomb, south africa, argentina, brazil, kazakhstan, belarus, ukraine, libya. >> you want to correct that buchanan? >> i don't think there are any active programs in any of those countries you are talking about except possibly iran. i don't think egypt, i don't think they have nuclear programs at all. and south africa gave up an actual nuclear weapon. libya gave up what they had inside that mountain which juan working that well. >> do you want to speak to anything? particularly iran? >> iran is going to be i just came back from the middle east, iran is going to be the issue for that part of the world. nobody is comfortable with what iran is doing at this stage of the game and they are the destabilizing force in the whole region, vis a vis israel.
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nobody knows where that is going to go and when israel is going to respond and whether the united states, president obama says they will absolutely not allow. >> did you speak to mr. netanyahu? >> they are just words at this stage. >> did you speak with mr. netanyahu? >> yes i met with him. >> what did he have to say? >> he said i shouldn't talk about what he had to say. >> this is a friendly group. >> there is a push coming, john. >> a real push by mid-year on the iran thing. no doubt about it. >> netanyahu doesn't have the stroke he had before this last election though? >> no, this election the country moved away. his party lost 12 seats. >> yes. >> and what's more, where the seats were gapped, it was really in the center. >> i want forgive a shout out to president nixon the nonproliferation treaty came into force while he was president and worked well in the years since 1970, india, pakistan and north korea joined
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the nuclear. >> another great leader of man, tonight i'm announcing that we will launch talks on a crop insurancesive transatlantic trade and investment partner slip with the european union. because trade that is fair and free across the atlantic supports millions of good paying american jobs. >> the idea for a trade pac between the u.s. and eu has been touted for decades. ing together the u.s. and the eu account for nearly half of the world's economic output. the european commission president jose manuel barroso called an agreement between the two trading partners a quote unquote game changer are. and outlined an ambitious timeli zone in the world, unquote. at this time of widespread
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unemployment, u.s. and european officials are eager to present voters with any tangible plan to create jobs and confront competition from china. both sides have vowed to eliminate the few low tariffs that remain. in fact tariffs are the easy part, eliminating trade barriers like regulatory standards is complicated. taking a cult areture. europeans won't eat clear reign rinsed chicken, genetically modified crops or hormone injected beef despite tests on their safety. procurement. europe's has quote unquote buy america provision. intellectual property the u.s. and the eof u must agree on standards for protecting intellectual property that set a benchmark for the rest of the world. also, any u.s. eu trade pac would have to be approved by the eu's 27 member states and by
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the u.s. congress. question how likely is a u.s. eu free trade agreement by next year. mort? >> highly likely. it is such a game changer everybody will realize what an enormous benefit it is. there are going to be regulatory problems we have to work out with the common market, agricultural issues as you suggested here but ultimately, it is such a plus for both sides that this is going to go through. won't be easy but it will get done. >> is my recollection correct that you predicted this on this program what three or four weeks ago? >> yes several weeks ago. that's right. >> did you have insider information on this? >> yes, i did. >> who did you talk to? >> i'll get back to you on that. >> why don't you get back to us right now. did you talk to the brits? >> i'm not in a position to talk about how i got it. i found out we were doing this. >> do you realize how huge this deal would be? >> yes, it is an absolutely constructive steps for both sides i don't no it is not. >> why?
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>> i'll tell you why. mort, what was our trade deficit with europe all year? over $100 billion. last year john we had the largest trade deficit in world history between two nationsing, $315 billion with klein. the united states has been getting its clock cleaned for the last 25 years. where do you think all our factories and jobs have gone? they have gone overseas. >> this is the counter weight to china. that is why it is going to work. >> mort, hold on, tim. mort has some inside wisdom on this. he predicted it. go ahead. >> i think you will have a much larger market. you can have your manufacturing base that will be completely expanded cost per unit will go down, we'll be much more competitive vis a vis countries like china, predictions pat? >> that $9 minimum wage is dead john. it will go nowhere because the national federation of independent businesses has come
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out hard against it. >> do you think the states ought to fix that minimum wage? >> i think states ought to set the minimum wage yeah. >> eleanor. >> it may be dead this congress but there is another congress pat. >> senator hagel will be confirmed as the next secretary of defense. >> sequestration will be modified by congress before march 1. the new common market between the united states and europe will turn out to be the most dominant new force in the economy over the next decade. >> i predict further research will show that unemployment goes up when the minimum wage goes up. bye bye ♪ [ music ]
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